Warner Bros. Sets Zak Penn to Adapt Ready Player One

The project first announced to be in the works more than four years ago (before the novel was even published), Warner Bros. and De Line Pictures have, according to a story at The Wrap, set Zak Penn (The Incredible Hulk, X-Men: The Last Stand) to adapt Ernie Cline’s Ready Player One. The property is officially described as follows:

In the near future, outcast teenager Wade Watts escapes from his bleak surroundings by logging in to the OASIS, a globally networked virtual utopia where users can lead idyllic alternate lives. When the eccentric billionaire who created the OASIS dies, he offers up his vast fortune as the prize in an elaborate treasure hunt. Along with gamers from around the world, Wade joins the adventure, and quickly finds himself pitted against powerful corporate foes and other ruthless competitors who will do anything, in the oasis or the real world, to reach the treasure first.

Cline, who previously scripted Fanboys, initially penned the adaptation of his book, which was then rewritten by A Better Life scribe Eric Eason.